Diplôme de Patisserie

It’s a foggy and chilly Friday morning in Paris. But no matter, because today is the Big Day: Susan receives with her Diplôme de Patisserie from Le Cordon Bleu.

This past Wednesday Susan finished her final exam for the superior level certificate. It was all about sugar sculpture. The class spent the last week or so of their time working towards this objective and, while one might question the value of spending so much class time on this sort of thing, the results were very impressive. (photo right: Susie with her final exam. For more photos click here!)

Three levels, three certificates; at times it seemed like it was going to last forever.

So of course it’s hard to believe that it’s just about all over. It was barely a year ago that we were sitting in our apartment in Siena, Italy, contemplating our next move in life. When I asked her what she would like to do, Susie said, “You know I’d really like to become a baker.” Next thing you know we were on our way to Florence to Apicius for their pastry program. After one term in Italy Susie realized that Apicius was not the serious program she was looking for, but where to go now?

Looking back that turned out to be an easy question to answer. If you want to become a pastry chef where else would you go but Le Cordon Bleu and where else to learn about pastry but in Paris?

So we packed up our stuff and at the end of July off we went north to the Frankish Kingdom. And here we are in mid-December and not only is Susan finishing the pastry program but she is going to be doing an internship at a wonderful little patisserie just a 10 minute walk from our apartment! And not to forget that it was right here in Paris Susan met some wonderful people, people who transcended age and nationality: 20-, 30- 40-year olds from Canada, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Greece, Spain, Slovenia, Argentina, Turkey. What a fantastic experience!

And of course for me, meeting Marie and Philippe and being able to spend so much time browsing through the history of France is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

And even more fantastic is that it continues still.

So this afternoon Susan goes back to the school one last time and sometime shortly after 3:30 she will receive her Diplôme. She said to me yesterday that she couldn’t believe it’s really over. And of course it’s really just begun.

Wish you were here,

Steve